....I still don't get how standing up for him and repeatedly telling James to leave him alone can be seen as a betrayal.
Because the whole scene looks like making use of Severus' suffering to flirt with James. She doesn't acknowledge Severus at all, she behaves as if he was a complete stranger.
She spends quite a while chatting with James, asking him about his motivation for his actions instead of casting a simple Finite.
As far as I remember, James first used Scourgify when Snape was still hanging in the air and it looked like he really might choke. Lily yelled at him to stop it and James promtply dropped Snape, leaving Snape spitting out soap suds but not choking. Maybe she figured that was appropriate after all the 'Mudbloods' he'd handed out. Again, by all means correct me.
James and Sirius disarm Severus, then cast Impedimenta to prevent him from retrieving his wand. They taunt him, he swears at them, James Scourgifies Severus who chokes. Lily shows up, demands that James leave Severus alone. Neither undoes any of the spells. They chat about why James behaves the way he does, James makes that stupid extortion-by-proxi attempt at her. Meanwhile the Impedimenta wears off allowing Severus to get to his wand and cast a non-verbal cutting spell which may have been Sectumsmpra (though much weaker than the way Harry cast it on Draco or Severus on George, because of the non-verbal casting and the different wand movement). James casts Levicorpus. Lily stops her rant to almost smile, then remembers she was supposed to be ranting, demands that James let Severus down, as James releases Severus Sirius immobilizes him. Again Lily demands them to leave Severus alone - and only then (when Sirius was also involved) does she even bring her wand out. James undoes Sirius' curse, taunts Severus - who goes on to make the 'Mudblood' remark (at James, rather than directly at Lily, as sionna pointed out - just like Lily had ignored him all the while).
So no, nobody undid the original spell that put Severus in a situation of helpless choking, they simply spent so much time on one another that the spell wore off. Lily had plenty of time to realize James was not going to do anything, but she didn't even take out her wand. Listening to James, looking at James and ranting at him was more interesting.
'paying so much attention to James' - really not seeing the issue here. He was the leader and the instigator. She was arguing with him and trying to get him to back off.
How about undoing the Impedimenta and looking to see if her supposed 'best friend' was alright?
Near-laughter'? She looked like she was going to smile for about a second in between shouting at Sirius and James to leave him alone.
What kind of person stops a rant to almost smile and then goes back to ranting? Someone whose rant wasn't particularly sincere, maybe? (At least that would be how Severus read her behavior.)
Snape called her the equivalent of the n-word and took a running jump off the slippery slope. While he could have chosen a less inappropriate insult I fully understand why he felt like hurting Lily at that point.
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Date: 2009-08-13 07:51 pm (UTC)Because the whole scene looks like making use of Severus' suffering to flirt with James. She doesn't acknowledge Severus at all, she behaves as if he was a complete stranger.
She spends quite a while chatting with James, asking him about his motivation for his actions instead of casting a simple Finite.
As far as I remember, James first used Scourgify when Snape was still hanging in the air and it looked like he really might choke. Lily yelled at him to stop it and James promtply dropped Snape, leaving Snape spitting out soap suds but not choking. Maybe she figured that was appropriate after all the 'Mudbloods' he'd handed out. Again, by all means correct me.
James and Sirius disarm Severus, then cast Impedimenta to prevent him from retrieving his wand. They taunt him, he swears at them, James Scourgifies Severus who chokes. Lily shows up, demands that James leave Severus alone. Neither undoes any of the spells. They chat about why James behaves the way he does, James makes that stupid extortion-by-proxi attempt at her. Meanwhile the Impedimenta wears off allowing Severus to get to his wand and cast a non-verbal cutting spell which may have been Sectumsmpra (though much weaker than the way Harry cast it on Draco or Severus on George, because of the non-verbal casting and the different wand movement). James casts Levicorpus. Lily stops her rant to almost smile, then remembers she was supposed to be ranting, demands that James let Severus down, as James releases Severus Sirius immobilizes him. Again Lily demands them to leave Severus alone - and only then (when Sirius was also involved) does she even bring her wand out. James undoes Sirius' curse, taunts Severus - who goes on to make the 'Mudblood' remark (at James, rather than directly at Lily, as sionna pointed out - just like Lily had ignored him all the while).
So no, nobody undid the original spell that put Severus in a situation of helpless choking, they simply spent so much time on one another that the spell wore off. Lily had plenty of time to realize James was not going to do anything, but she didn't even take out her wand. Listening to James, looking at James and ranting at him was more interesting.
'paying so much attention to James' - really not seeing the issue here. He was the leader and the instigator. She was arguing with him and trying to get him to back off.
How about undoing the Impedimenta and looking to see if her supposed 'best friend' was alright?
Near-laughter'? She looked like she was going to smile for about a second in between shouting at Sirius and James to leave him alone.
What kind of person stops a rant to almost smile and then goes back to ranting? Someone whose rant wasn't particularly sincere, maybe? (At least that would be how Severus read her behavior.)
Snape called her the equivalent of the n-word and took a running jump off the slippery slope.
While he could have chosen a less inappropriate insult I fully understand why he felt like hurting Lily at that point.